I think a Wizard or Sorcerer would be a great addition, if you're referring to arcane casters. As I suggested before, I think it would be handy to have a skill-monkey type class as one of the two new characters, but a Wizard or Sage Sorcerer might be able to contribute somewhat to the skill front as well. I will not meddle overmuch in regards to the specific character, as it should be something they enjoy playing.

Hello all, I am Delia's friend, new to the whole play by post thing, but anxious to give it a try. Sorry its taking me so long to get things together, but I've come down with a nasty fever and have really been having a hard time just getting the energy up to get to the computer. I will try and finish getting my account set up and getting things rolling soonest.

Thanks in advance for being patient with me, and look forward to being involved in the game.

Hi, I'm Valachi's bud ... ready and willing to make a skill-based character concept. Thinking of an "adventurer" in the modern concept. Devil-may-care, risk-taking athletic fellow: goal being the pursuit of something new and exciting. Haven't looked through the rogue/bard archtypes yet either. Will read player's guide and SRD tonight and swing something by tomorrow.

Welcome aboard. I look forward to seeing your characters and getting to know you both. If you have any questions during the character creation process, or special circumstances you would like me to entertain in regards to a particular character concept, please let me know.

Considering an Elven Bard/Alchemist multi using Archaeologist and Crypt-Breaker archetypes which is more rogue than it seems and still keeps some of the character concept I mentioned above open. Will change his driving goal from just simply thrill-seeking to one of a near obsessive hunt for that deep-hidden magical/academical secret somewhere, with enough physical skill to attempt it.

Any top-level GM-issues with any of the above before I sketch it out in Hero Lab? Never played/used an alchemist before, so that should be entertaining for myself.

As far as CC traits go ... are they limited 1 each per campaign? If so, which are taken?

The bard/alchemist combo sounds good, and I don't see any problem with the Archetypes you've listed.

We had a proposal for a similar character as an earlier replacement (A female Bard-Archeologist - who came across as a female Indiana Jones) who unfortunately dropped out after only a few posts. If you were interested, you could consider assuming her role, and rebuilding the character to your tastes. As I said she posted only a few times, but she was recently introduced and could make an easy transition back into the group.

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TRACKED RESOURCES
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Action Points - 0/6
Alkahest Bomb 1d8/1d4 (6/day) (DC 15) (Su) - 0/6
Archaeologist's Luck +1 (5 rounds/day) (Ex) - 0/5
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Alchemy +2 (Su) +2 to Craft (Alchemy) to create alchemical items, can Id potions by touch.
Alkahest Bomb 1d8/1d4 (6/day) (DC 15) (Su) 1d8 acid damage to constructs and undead, 1d4 force damage to all other creatures.
Archaeologist's Luck +1 (5 rounds/day) (Ex) Gain Luck bonus to attack, damage, saves, and all skills.
Bardic Knowledge +1 (Ex) Add + 1 to all knowledge skill checks.
Crypt Breaker's Draught (Su) Rather than develop mutagens that increase their natural armor and physical abilities at the expense of their minds, crypt breakers focus on the creation of special draughts that can enhance their senses. When a crypt breaker drinks one of these drau
Deadly Aim -1/+2 Trade a penalty to ranged attacks for a bonus to ranged damage.
Elven Immunities +2 save bonus vs Enchantments.
Elven Immunities - Sleep You are immune to Sleep effects.
Elven Magic +2 racial bonus on caster checks to overcome spell resistance. +2 to spellcraft checks to determine the properties of a magic item.
Hero Points (1) Hero Points can be spent at any time to grant a variety of bonuses.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Magic is Life While under the effects of a spell, gain +2 to save vs. death effects, and automatically stabilize bleeding.
Magical Knack: Bard (Archaeologist) +2 CL for a specific class, to a max of your HD.
Poison Resistance +2 (Ex) +2 to save vs. Poison.
Poison Use You don't accidentally poison yourself with blades.
Poisoning (Standard Action) (Ex) Normal: Apply poison to a weapon as a standard action.
Precise Bombs (4 squares) (Su) Whenever the alchemist throws a bomb, he can select a number of squares equal to his Intelligence modifier that are not affected by the splash damage from his bombs.
Throw Anything Proficient with improvised ranged weapons. +1 to hit with thrown splash weapons.
Trapfinding +1 +1 to find or disable traps.
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A desert elf hailing from Osirion, Ried (shortened from Riedel) Wil o' Wisp as he calls himself has spent the major part of his life searching for something other than the Brightness. Exasperated by his kin and impatient (as far as elves go) with their sit around and wait nature, Ried set off on his own shortly after adulthood and hasn't looked back.

Ried's family name is Solpedina and translates loosely as Sunwalker. Nomadic for elves, they were free with his upbringing allowing him to experience many things as a youth. The wizards and alchemists fascinated him early and combined with a yearning for adventure that had some questioning his parentage, Ried immediately got into a heap of trouble exploring nearby tombs, ruins and other areas that rumor said hid mysterious, arcane things

His adventurous nature and desire to find something special drove him away from home. No tragedy befell his family and they are likely still healthily plodding along with their lives, but Ried wouldn't know, he hasn't stopped to think about it.

Somewhat personable, but highly independent, Ried can get caught focusing on things with a level of determination and a lack of time sense that only the long-lived can express. Not particularly fond of fighting, he has a great distaste for the undead, garnered from years of encountering reanimated "Book of the Dead" corpses, raised by the necromancers of the desert region he calls home.

He looks good at first glance. One question though, not that it matters in an online game, but how do you say his given name? Is it Rēēd or Rē ĕd?

In terms of the mechanics, he looks good. His strength may impact him in terms of his carrying capacity, so I'm sure he'll be acquiring some means of enhancing it, such as a handy haversack or muleback cords. The lower CHA makes me think you do not intend to advance bard very far, making Alchemist your likely choice for Favoured Class. Are you applying your favoured class bonus to SP or HP? At the moment it appears you have spent 25/26 skill points, so are not using it for either. Let me know.

At present, we are not using action points or hero points, as they were not instituted at the beginning of the game. I took over the game from the old GM part way through, so we are primarily continuing his set-up and house rules. If you have questions about the house rules, check the campaign info tab. I may revisit the house rules section when we finish book 1, and give players a chance to redesign their characters a bit, without penalty, to take any new changes into account. Any changes will be done in consultation with the group.

The feats are good, and the traits are fine as well, but mean you will not have a campaign feat and seemingly would not know the late professor. I have an idea for another way to get you involved in the case however.

Are you familiar with the Carrion Crown Adventure Path, such as having played it or GM'd it before? If not, please download and read the Players Guide from the Paizo website. If you are, you will not be the only one, but as with others I expect players to distinguish player and reasonable character knowledge as best you can.

If you have any questions, please let me know. Starting income is 1000 gp; the level 2 value, as the group has not yet encountered any of the treasures in Harrowstone, and you will receive a share of them should you accompany them.

Alchemist will be the favored class: HP bonus; Bard is more of a splash. I'll take a few levels, but likely not past level 2 spells thus the Cha.

Hero Lab says I spent 26 points ... not sure where the disconnect is.

EDIT: unless it's the Athletics bit from the house rules, but it looks for skill points that only applies to Climb/Swim and I only took points in Climb so that seems unlikely. Although reading that, I'm going to move some skill points around

Definitely has some weaknesses, which is something I like in characters. Copy the action/hero points thing ... default setting on my hero lab setup. :)

I've read the Carrion Crown Player's guide and talked with Val about the game so far ... other than that, I've not touched it at all.

As I buy equipment, especially alchemical/poison items, I assume you want me to buy them full price vice assuming i crafted them?

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, continual flame, creator must be 12th level; Cost 62 gp, 5 sp
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in low light, distinguishing color and detail.
Magic is Life While under the effects of a spell, gain +2 to save vs. death effects, and automatically stabilize bleeding.
Magical Knack: Bard (Archaeologist) +2 CL for a specific class, to a max of your HD.
Poison Resistance +2 (Ex) +2 to save vs. Poison.
Poison Use You don't accidentally poison yourself with blades.
Poisoning (Standard Action) (Ex) Normal: Apply poison to a weapon as a standard action.
Precise Bombs (4 squares) (Su) Whenever the alchemist throws a bomb, he can select a number of squares equal to his Intelligence modifier that are not affected by the splash damage from his bombs.
Throw Anything Proficient with improvised ranged weapons. +1 to hit with thrown splash weapons.
Trapfinding +1 +1 to find or disable traps.
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A desert elf hailing from Osirion, Ried (shortened from Riedel) Wil o' Wisp as he calls himself has spent the major part of his life searching for something other than the Brightness. Exasperated by his kin and impatient (as far as elves go) with their sit around and wait nature, Ried set off on his own shortly after adulthood and hasn't looked back.

Ried's family name is Solpedina and translates loosely as Sunwalker. Nomadic for elves, they were free with his upbringing allowing him to experience many things as a youth. The wizards and alchemists fascinated him early and combined with a yearning for adventure that had some questioning his parentage, Ried immediately got into a heap of trouble exploring nearby tombs, ruins and other areas that rumor said hid mysterious, arcane things

His adventurous nature and desire to find something special drove him away from home. No tragedy befell his family and they are likely still healthily plodding along with their lives, but Ried wouldn't know, he hasn't stopped to think about it.

Somewhat personable, but highly independent, Ried can get caught focusing on things with a level of determination and a lack of time sense that only the long-lived can express. Not particularly fond of fighting, he has a great distaste for the undead, garnered from years of encountering reanimated "Book of the Dead" corpses, raised by the necromancers of the desert region he calls home.

Any preference on how you would like to be introduced? Did you know the professor, lack of a CC trait notwithstanding?

My present idea for introducing you is that you did not know the professor, though perhaps you knew off him, as he is a bit of an authority on all things necromantic. You met the party's present host 20 years ago while he was a young brash adventurer, and perhaps went on an adventure or two with him. Knowing a bit about where your areas of interest lay back then, he called you up to help him deal with a problem in the town were he settled down. He told you that the city council trying to sort it out, but they're politicians, and wasting too much time. Besides that, they're employing outsiders to do the job, and he'd much rather have a man he could trust on the inside with them.

You first met Gharen Muricar around 20 years ago when he was young adventurer. A bit of a rake and perpetually the lady's man, he was a Fighter/Rogue and a decent swordsman. He was always an accomplished talker, and the fact he is now a politician is of no great surprise, though perhaps his choice to live in such a small village is. You would have expected him to settle in to high society somewhere, given his success as an adventurer and the apparent level of his wealth. You enjoyed his company and became friends, though whether you ever adventured together is up to you. You have a few levels, and as an Elf, some of those XP could easily date back 20 years.

You have kept in contact over the years, and his letters have often included snippets of references to the ruins of Harrowstone. He knows of your interest in ruins and crypts, and it was obvious to you that he was trying to bait you into visiting. However, it never seemed likely to you that a building destroyed only fifty years ago would possess the kind of secrets you were generally looking for. While you enjoy the man's company, it seemed far more likely that his true motive was to show off his wealth and lifestyle to an old friend, and gain your appreciation and accolades (and a little jealousy wouldn't hurt either).

His latest letter found you only about a week ago, and in close proximity to Ravengro. This time he made references to strange goings on, and expressed the suspicion that the Haunting of Harrowstone might be real, and might be behind the recent oddities. This time he promised that were you to visit, he would make it worth your while, and that the task might be one that put your particular kind of skills to good use.

You arrived this afternoon and he told you about the strange occurrences in town; bloody letters appearing overnight, skeletons rising from the grave in the restlands and bursting into flames, and numerous anecdotes from the villagers about small strange things and visions. He told you that a group of outsiders had been commissioned to explore Harrowstone and determine if the supposed haunting there was real, and to find out if whatever was going on there was responsible for the events in town. The town had sent one of the Sheriff's deputies to act as witness. When the group returned from Harrowstone, the deputy, Riff, confirmed the place was, "Haunted as all hell!" and reported that he would not be going back in. Being trusted by Gharen, and in his opinion made of sterner stuff, he proposed having you take his place, acting as his, and the council's, personal representative with the outsiders.

He himself has given up adventuring, or putting his life at risk as he sees it, and is quite comfortable living of the spoils of his youth. For your participation he will personally pay you 400 gp to find the answer to the questions, or 1000 gp if you help to put the haunting to rest, in addition to whatever the council pays the group as a whole.

Yes, the thought of a sudden arcane mystery, especially something lingering like a haunting would appeal to Ried's curiosity. Both the magic itself and the nature of whatever caused it.

I could see Ried having adventured with Ghelian, in the sense of a guy you call on when you're in the area on business because of a like-minded approach and positive past realtionship, so friends in that long-term, long-distance sort, but not the guy you drink beer with every weekend. Make sense? Ried's focus on mysteries are his main desire, not that he's anti-social by any stretch of the imagination, but everything else is just a bit dulled by the fire that drives him to hunt down a cryptic problem or uncover a new arcane discovery

Ried would've laughed at Riff's off-color comment while simultaneously being confused by his trepidation. Just wouldn't cross his mind that someone wouldn't want to leap at the idea of figuring this out. He's excited about taking Riff's place and eagerly accepts Gharen's offer, although curious about where he may be able to stay and set up the basics of a small lab & storage for some of his equipment (that sorry strenght being the factor :) )

Couple quick noob questions: Are the basics of Ravengro available? Map/statistics/major NPCs. Don't have the Player's Guide here at work if it's in there. Don't recall it being, though.

Also, is Gharen the Sherrif mentioned above, or some other influential position in town?

Most of the town regulars are described under the Significant Figures spoiler in the Campaign information tab.

The town is governed by a council, of which Gharen is one of the four members. The Sheriff is a separate office filled by Benjan Caeller, who has four deputies, Riff included. They report to the town council.

The map has not been posted, as Paizo tends not to like their artwork being reposted, and no, I don't think it is in the Player's Handbook. So far it has mostly just been described, with this place being described as relative to that place.

Your take on the nature of the friendship seems right in line with mine. You were not buddy-buddy, but rather guys who respected each other's abilities, worked together, and enjoyed each other's company while you did it. Gharen is not likely to be the type who has close friends either.

You are presently Gharen's guest and welcome to take rooms in his home, and set up your lab there. If you prefer, he will provide a room for you at the Outward Inn.

At present in the Gameplay thread the PC's are at a party at Gharen's home, officially a party to welcome an old friend to town (by showing off for him)(you), but just as importantly, to impress a young woman who is the focus of his latest conquest (the PC Delia), a girl almost 1/3 his age. He has offered to introduce to the party the old friend he talked about, but has not yet told them about Riff or that you will be going back into the ruins with them. Feel free to jump in at any time and make yourself known over there.

I have this humorous scene of Valachi picking flowers at random to give to Kendra, and her knowing the language of flowers. She looks at them and goes,"How nice, Anemone (forsaken), yellow carnation (rejection), poppies (oblivion), marigold (pain and grief), and hydragea (heartlessness)."

okay, as Delia said, my fever was in fact pneumonia, I've spent the entire week laying in bed with a fever barely controlled by meds and feeling lightheaded, needless to say, the computer wasn't even in the equation for quite some time, I'm trying to get back to the real world again, thought I'd touch bases once again to let you all know I'm not dead, and haven't forgotten about you. I'll try to have something ready soon.

Okay so here's a question, looking at wizard, under the arcane bond ability, it says it may be an item, and that the wizard receives said item, "for free" okay, now it also says, that the item can be a staff, wand, weapon, ring, or amulet.

So assuming a wand was chosen, what kind of wand would this be? Of what level? What other guides or limitations would surround the ability of this item?

That is explained somewhere, I remember reading it. The item is a normal, non-magical item when you receive it at level 1, but it can be enchanted as if you possessed the appropriate feat so long as you are of sufficient level to do so. In the case of a traditionally disposable item like a wand, it simply becomes a regular non-magical wand again when all the charges are expended, instead of being destroyed. You can then re-enchant it as you wish.

Like a regular wand you would only be able to have one spell charged within the wand at any one time.

That was my impression, but I couldn't find any sort of guidelines or other adjudicating information. Sounds good.

I've made some decent progress on character creation, still have a lot to go. Human Wizard and here's the base stats at least.

stats:

Str 8
Dex 14
Con 12
Wis 10
Int 18 with +2 racial
Cha 14

Now of course these are always subject to change, but its what I've got so far, I've got the skills mostly done, just debating the last 2 or 3

Feats:

1st level
Toughness
Improved Initiative

I also have most of my spell list done, but I'll leave that for another time. Let me know if you see any problems, suggestions, I'm a bit out of practice for PF so taking a bit to get the old gears turning. Also if there are any story based factors I might need to take into account for creation, lemme know.

The stats look good, I've no objections. The feats are good ones as well, pretty standard Wizarding choices. You'll also have a level 3 feat to choose as well.

All official Paizo sources are acceptable, including Archetypes. The PFSRD is a good place to get information on material you don't own the books for. You may also select up to two traits, including one campaign trait, if you wish.

There are a few house rules to note, listed on the Campaign Info tab, but they will probably not affect you over much. The main issue of concern in this campaign is whether you knew Professor Lorrimor or not. If you are not familiar with the Carrion Crown Adventure path, knowing him tends to be the central characteristic of most of the PC's. He was a Wizard who used to teach at the University, but retired a few years back. He was at times an adventurer and a scholar, and he was always interested in researching various evils, particularly the undead. Before the start of book 1 he was killed in an accident, and all the party members were invited to his funeral, and to hear the reading of his will. Mysteries are uncovered, and the party proceeds to solve them together.

If you have not read the Carrion Crown Player's Guide, please download it and do so, it is a free download. In it there are a variety of campaign traits you can select that described your relationship to the professor, and you may choose any one of these if you like. You do not have to know the professor, and our other replacement player decided to go that route. Let me know what you would like to do, and we will work out a story that works for you.

I was thinking, an easy work in, with a tie in to follow-on with the group. He knows the Professor had one of the books that needs to return to Liepstadt, and he came to see if he could get it/return it for him. As we are its keeper we will not likely surrender it, and instead he can wait to accompany us when we go. Just a thought.

Delia, your suggestion above could work quite well. We'll see what AdamantVallation comes up with. Any word from him? Haven't heard anything in a week or so it seems.

Heads up to everyone, I am headed out of town again this weekend, and this time I don't know if I'll have any internet access. As such, I will try to post the next round of this fight before I go, if enough player's post for me to do so, otherwise the next update will likely be Monday. Sorry for the delay.

He made it back into work this Mon, and has been trying to catch-up on what all neeeded doing the week he was out. I've been working with him on getting used to the tags and building profiles and such whenever we got a chance.

He said he is mostly done, and just needs to get a profile made and get the character posted. We discussed the book aspect, and he thought it could work, based off the one about the Dark Tapestry.

Sorry about the delay, as Delia mentioned, being out of the world for a week made for a lot of catch up work to do. I'm building the alias and profile for this character right now. I should have him online by the end of the day.

He looks great so far. Any idea when he will be ready to go? As it is, in game, the group will likely be resting for the night, running a few errands in the morning, and then setting out for Harrowstone again. It would be nice to introduce you as soon as possible. Once they return to Harrowstone, it will be much harder to introduce you in a plausible manner.

While finishing him out, please list his typical prepared spells and his elemental resistance in his profile. Unless you make mention of it in the thread, I will assume that these are the spells you have prepared on any given day. When you are buying equipment, you may start out with any items you could make yourself purchased at the manufacturing cost, as long as you could make them with a "take 10" skill check.

Sounds good, I'm stuck at work right now. I plan on trying to make some more progress and hopefully finishing him up this afternoon.

I'm not particularly concerned with how I get put into the story, any ideas right now? My planned backstory is essentially that I was an apprentice mage in an "important" house. The location/patronage of said house is really unimportant, I figure I make out to this part of the world since they have some excellent centers of higher learning, what exactly my interest in the story is, I haven't fully nailed down yet.

Valachi: You make take one more hitpoint, as we are using half+1 as our average, which would be 6 on a d10.

Agnar, all looks good.

We are just waiting for Ember so far as level ups are concerned, but I would like to pause in town long enough for our new wizard to be introduced. Therefore, if there is anything you would like to accomplish in the evening or in the morning, please let me know.

Alistair: Looks good for the most part. Your attack with a club would be +0 rather than -1, since you have a +1 BAB. We are also using a house rule that allows everyone to use Weapon Finesse without the feat, so you might find a Dagger a better melee weapon in the long run. You may also use your Dex bonus for melee touch attacks under this rule.

You may want to spend some of your cash as well, since having so much unspent gold leaves you a bit behind the curve. You could use it to prepare scrolls, or to purchase scrolls of spells you do not have in order to add them to your spellbook. Potions are handy, and a wand might do you a lot of good too. Just some ideas.

1. An option based on your history is that the setting out to find the famed author of some of your favorite books has just recently happened. You travelled first to the University where his works indicated he taught, only to be informed that he had retired some 15 years ago (word often travel slowly in a pre-printing press, pre-mail system world, so the fact that he did not know this is quite plausible). Finding out that he now lives in a place called Ravengro, you set out to find his home, and approach him there. Discovering that he recently died will be another shock. You will walk into town tired and a bit naive, hoping to meet a man you think of as a bit of hero of yours, only to find out he is dead. After that, you'll talk your way into helping finish his last quest.

2. Delia's suggestion. After the fall of your family you set out for the university and got a position there as someone's research assistant, or another similarly low posting. Someone who knew of the booksin the professor's possession sent you to retrieve it for his work. The party will not be willing to give it up until they can take it back themselves, as instructed by the Professor's will, forcing you to safeguard them until you can escort them and he book back to the university.

3. A repeat of earlier replacement introductions. As outlined in the player's guide, you knew Professor Lorrimor personally, and we're invited to his funeral, but for whatever reason, we're unable to make it in time (I believe that in game, it has only been about three days sinc the day of the funeral, making you not all that late in truth. Ember arrived late as well, and only got here yesterday.

I prefer the first option, as it seems to me to mesh well with your character being kind of awkward and a fish out of water. Your only family gone, you set out to pursue a dream and meet your hero, to discover that you missed him by only a month. Now you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, but with a group of people who seem to have been Professor Lorrimore's friends, and that they are on a quest set in motion by the professor himself.

I think option 1 sounds the best to me also, it does seem to mesh the best with the personality and luck, I have in mind for this character. Being awkward, still a bit cowardly, but ashamed of his cowardice, and frankly unable to afford what he knows as a modest lifestyle, let alone tuition to an esteemed university, I can see him joining up with the group, in hopes of earning accolades enough to gain himself patronage at a school, and frankly a lack of other options.